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23rd September - Hanoi

Got back to Hanoi at 5am this morning after upgrading our train journey back from Sa Pa. The hard beds in hard sleeper were just too much to handle so for the princely sum of $5 each we upgraded to the much more luxurious soft sleeper class.

It was worth it. There was a western style toilet, soft beds and only four people to a cabin. We had one other person in ours, a Vietnamese Princess no less... Ok well she may not have been a bonafide princess but she certainly acted like one the trumped up little madam. She breezed into the cabin without saying a word to either of us and put down her pink and white leather holdall, took off her matching pink and white trainers and proceeded to spend the next hour on the phone.

She then went to sleep without so much as a glance in our direction. Oh well, we got on with enjoying our journey.

Hanoi wasn't exactly dead at 5am, there were actually a few brave souls taking their morning constitutions. Lots of walkers and joggers and not that many motorbikes thank god.

Tal and I got dropped off by the hotel we stayed in before but to our surprise, everything was locked up. Hotels had shutters down and there wasn't any sign of any life anywhere. We didn't have anywhere to stay... We walked around for a bit to find some semblance of life and then this little old lady gave us a genius suggestion....

Motioning to the obvious bell by one of the hotel doors she made a pointing movement with her finger... Great idea... Ring the bell. So much for a university education....

We did so and found out that a hotel around the corner was open and had rooms. Result... That's how we ended up at the Prince 3 hotel. Not bad at all either.

We got a few hours kip and then met Rory who was also in Hanoi.

We spent the day checking out a few sights and also arranging our tour to Halong Bay.

The search for the B52 bomber that didn't exist was a particular highlight. We gave up and headed somewhere for refreshments... We found a place but a look at the menu kind of suggested we should go elsewhere...

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